Movie Insider

Subscribe to The Dispatch

Already a subscriber?
Enroll in EZPay and get a free gift!
Enroll now.

By Rose RussellTHE (Toledo) BLADE • Wednesday April 3, 2013 6:49 AM

People who tire of hearing seemingly useless remarks such as “Off the top of my head” and “I
know, right?” might view such catchphrases as lazy talk.

Yet, according to a linguistics professor at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., it’s
difficult to be too critical of catchphrases.

“The utility of such phrases is very predictable,” Robert Leonard said. “Dialogue is highly
orchestrated. We think we open our mouths and words come out, but linguists have been studying
conversation for 40 or 50 years, and, for conversation to even be recognizable, it has to be
orchestrated.”

People take turns talking during conversation, Leonard added: While one takes the floor, others
show proof that they are listening.So consider that the next time you report an event to someone
who then asks, “Are you serious?”

“When people say, ‘Are you serious?’ then they acknowledge that they have done their
conversational job well,” he said. “It shows the person that what they have just said is of great
interest.”

Leonard, who maintains a website on the subject at Forensiclanguage.com, is a vocalist and
founding member of Sha Na Na, a nostalgic 1950s rock band that performed at Woodstock. He was named
one of the smartest rock stars in history, according to the September 2012 issue of
Time magazine.

Some of the seemingly more mundane conversational responses, he said, such as “Get out of here!”
“You’re kidding!” “Shut up!” and “No way!” reveal whether a person is really listening.

Catchphrases sometimes are the result of TV commercials that become a part of language. Among
the more recent ones: “Can you hear me now?” and “That’s so 20 seconds ago.”

So is it fair to consider these and similar comments as lazy talk?

“Typically, people are accused of language laziness when they are not speaking formal English,
but it’s not lazy at all,” Leonard said.